Beware That Girl was divisive just for me. I loved some parts of it completely, some others drove me to distraction. I was either "OOH" or "Grrrr" depending which part I was reading and what the plot was doing.

The basic premise was superb - two girls, both with secrets, come together and form a friendship that is based on control. Who is controlling who however is unclear and those were the parts that held me enthralled. Within the construction of the novel I liked the multiple ways the author used point of view to manipulate the reader, I loved how the two main characters were fleshed out during the course of the story and how ultimately appearances proved deceptive. Depending of course on what you, as a reader, are taking from them as you go. Clever.

So that was great. The intricacies of the plot however, when speaking to the "pivotal point" that of Mark and his manipulative personality became slightly unbelievable. It would spoil things to expand on that excessively but the girls as portrayed made decisions that seemed unlikely. So occasionally I was dumped out of the very emotive and thought provoking "friendship" into "Oh God REALLY?" territory. So that was the downside. Mark was WAY too caricature for my personal taste, I much preferred the well drawn, beautifully created Olivia and Kate.

Having said that I barrelled through this, it had a shiver inducing classic ending, the majority carried all the hallmarks of a good emotive psychological thriller and if you like the genre you'll get all sorts of good stuff out of this read.

Recommended even with the slight annoyance. Mrs Chen makes up for it...